The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann was the subject of a 60 Minutes episode because the 18th-century story of sailing into anarchy, murder, imperialism, starvation, and return to England has so much to explore. A British ship, the Wager, left England in 1740 on a secret mission during a war against Spain. The ship sailed around South America and ended up stranded for months on an island off the coast of Patagonia, facing starvation in a barren wilderness.
If the crew had died on that island, there would be no story worth a documentary, but the crew did return to England, where a court-martial was conducted on charges of mutiny, reason, and murder. The Wager is a true story with all the elements of a double thriller during the voyage, and the ensuing Admiralty court-martial when the crew is rescued and returned home.